Music

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Last summer I reported on a fearlessly pretentious line of film geek T-shirts that mashed up corporate rock logos with the names of art film directors who fit phonetically, if not philosophically, with the rockers in question. Ozzy, meet Ozu, Van Halen, meet Von Trier, Danzig, meet Herzog, and so on. (One of the latest is Almodovar done up in early ‘70s Aerosmith.) I have resisted picking up one of these shirts at the Cinefile store in Santa Monica, mainly because even the largest size looks suspiciously like “West Side X-Large,” if you know what I mean—one wash would send it straight to my daughter’s night shirt bin, and you’ll forgive me if I don’t cherish the idea of a logo bearing the name Von Trier snuggling up to my nine-year-old at night. (Speaking of Von Trier, however, the Nuart had/has some keen “Chaos Reigns” T-shirts that I would have leapt at if not for the fact that all the large boys in town already snapped up the stock in my size.)

But I’ve been birthday shopping in the world of novelty T-shirts a bit over the past few months, and I just felt the time was right for highlighting a slightly less highfalutin model of subtle T-shirt branding for the slightly nerdier (but not exclusively Watchmen-obsessed) film fans among us, of whom I obviously count myself as one. I provided a link to Last Exit to Nowhere at the end of last summer’s Cinefile T-shirt post, but I felt it was worth revisiting just to show off some of the great designs this company offers. These are T-shirts that proclaim possession of beloved films along with an added extra degree of verisimilitude and obsessive detail that will appeal to the film nerd’s need to shout about his favorites while preserving a little of their mystery (and exclusivity) as well. While Last Exit’s stock in general tends to favor sci-fi/tough guy fanboy favorites (Blade Runner, Brazil and the Alien franchise are very big in this catalog), I would, for example, proudly wear any of the following designs, all of which appeal to me because of their specificity in representing their films, or because of the odd context which results from mentioning certain films in the context of any kind of T-shirt. These won’t be too difficult, I’m guessing, for most readers of this blog, but see how many of the designs you can match up to the movie from which they were derived.

Also, I ordered a Marx Brothers T-shirt for my daughter from an online company called November Fire, which looks to be the go-to fashion source if you’re an godless, baby-eating, devil-worshiping metal-head, but which also features a terrific array of horror movie-themed T-shirts, many of them created directly from the one-sheets and newspaper advertisements used to promote the movies when they flashed through theaters (mostly in the ‘70s, it seems). I had a grand old time just thumbing through the catalog when the Marx Bros. T-shirt was delivered, and as a result my best friend ended up with a Shriek of the Mutilated T-shirt for his birthday this year, poor bastard. The shirts here are tacky, deliberately, each and every one, but the November Fire catalog is an excellent source to find just the right piece of clothing to show off at the next midnight cult movie you find yourself attending. If you’re like me you will be able to rack up an impressive e-shopping cart full of delightfully cinematic sartorial statements before good sense and economic awareness grab hold of your lapels (or your T-shirt collar, because if you really are like me you don’t have lapels) and wisely guide you to scale back your choices. Here are some of the heartwarming selections I had to put back.

Granted, I’m enough of a grown-up to realize that the idea of wearing a T-shirt with a giant Vincent Price/Dr. Anton Phibes noggin emblazoned on the front, or one boasting a super-fine transfer of a newspaper ad for the (popular?) grindhouse double bill Beast of the Yellow Night and Creature with the Blue Hand is probably a better idea (if even that) than one realized in the light of day. But there is a big part of me that can’t resist cheesy garments such as these, and if you’re one of us (One of us! One of us!) then you’ll either want to check out these catalogs quickly, or are already familiar with them and wondering to yourself about now, what the hell took him so long to find this stuff? And why wouldn’t you proudly wear a Green Slime T-shirt?

9 comments:

Dennis, I am a huge geek for film geek t-shirts so I very much appreciated this post. I have purchased shirts from Cinefile and many from Last Exit to Nowhere as well(great shirts). I also like Found Item Clothing. They sell replica t-shirts as worn by characters in films. I think their whole project started because they couldn't find a proper "I heart Toxic Waste" t-shirt a la Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS anywhere on line so they set about creating one. They now have at least 5 of the shirts Kilmer wears in that film available for purchase as well as many others. I also am a big of Rotten Cotten. Similar to November Fire in a lot of ways it looks like. I am an especially big proponent of their video logo shirts. They your favorite old video logos the likes of Canon, New World, Video Gems, Embassy, and Lightning Video among others. Can't remember if I got my Wizard Video logo shirt there or not. Great stuff though, I love how many shirts are out there for film geeks. Warms my heart. Oh and by the way, THE GREEN SLIME has maybe the greatest theme song of all time I think...

For my b-day, in honor of my rent-paying job, The Missus scored me a Thorn Industries T-shirt from Last Exit. A few months later, I was wearing while attending a chemical industry convention. I liked the quizzical looks it got (not that I think anyone made the connection with Damien: Omen 2).

I'd go with the "Mitchell" t-shirt. Anything to raise awareness of Joe Don Baker. In fact...on your next quiz I think you should have a question that relates to Joe Don.

These shirts are amazing, and exactly the kind of thing I would love to wear to work...and then my students give me weird looks and ask me who Vincent Price is. But that's what education is all about, right?! They've got to learn about the finer things in life like b-movies from someone.

Those are all wonderful t-shirts, and I would like each of them, please.

There is a lot of Miskatonic merchandise out there, connected mainly to Lovecraft as a whole, and less to RE-ANIMATOR specifically. I'd really like a MISKATONIC U sweatshirt. If it wasn't a fashion faux-pas, would also like an Edward Gorey tie, and then wear the two together.

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